Romans 10:1: A Heart for the Lost

Introduction:

Do you have a love for those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you ever cried out as George Whitfield has done, ‘O Lord, give me souls, or take my soul’? Have you felt the love for your own country that moved John Knox to pray, ‘Give me Scotland or I die!’? Richard Baxter urges us: ‘Oh, if you have the hearts of Christians or of men in you, let them yearn towards your poor ignorant, ungodly neighbours. Alas, there is but a step betwixt them and death and hell; many hundred diseases are waiting ready to seize on them, and if they die unregenerate, they are lost forever. Have you hearts of rock, that cannot pity men in such a case as this? If you believe not the Word of God, and the danger of sinners, why are you Christians yourselves? If you do believe it, why do you not bestir yourself to the helping of others?’ The bible is full of examples of those who have loved and prayed for the lost. We see Moses interposing Himself between God and the people He wants to judge; we see Abraham praying for Sodom and Gomorrah; we see Jesus praying for those who were murdering Him, and this echoed by Stephen. And in the verse we are considering today, Romans 10:1 we are confronted with Paul’s love and prayer for the lost. ‘Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.’

Today we have a very simple task to examine Paul’s love for the lost and then our own.